Auction
by Black Knight 03
Summary: Kate finds there's more to Larry than she ever thought and Miranda and Gordo find a growing attraction between them. [KLa, MG]
1. Unexpected Connections

Disclaimer – Disney owns Lizzie McGuire

A/N – _"Thoughts"_ , They're juniors in high school.

Chapter 1 – Unexpected Connections

Kate sat at her desk in her room starring at her math book. She had just spent the past half hour working on her math homework and understood less of it then when she started. _"God, I hate math."_ Sighing, she folded her arms on her desk and rested her head on her forearms.

A minute later, the doorbell rang and she heard her mother answer it. "Kate!" Mrs. Sanders yelled.

_"Larry's here,"_ she thought as she stuffed her math notebook inside the textbook. Closing the book, she picked it off her desk and walked to the kitchen. Because of Kate's borderline math grades, her parents had gotten her a tutor. She had hoped it'd be Gordo but grudgingly accepted Larry when her parents threatened to take away her car.

Like Kate, Larry didn't exactly look forward to their weekly sessions either. The only thing that made it bearable was that he got twenty bucks a session.

"Hey," Kate mumbled as slid her book along the top of the kitchen table.

Larry was sitting at the head of the table and greeted her with the same enthusiasm. "Hey."

"You get any of the homework done this time?" Larry asked trying to keep the sarcastic tone out of his voice.

Kate glared at him as she sat in the chair next to him, "What do you think?" Larry closed his eyes as he rolled them.

About fifteen minutes into the session, they heard the front door slam. Larry's head snapped up at the loud slam but Kate just ignored it, like she was used to it.

"Karen!" a deep male voice yelled.

Larry looked at Kate with a questioning look. Kate glanced up from her notebook. "My dad's looking for my mom," she told him. As they heard footsteps storm off and upstairs, Larry turned back to looking over Kate's work.

A few moments later, they started hearing muffled voices gradually getting louder. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kate flinch slightly but try her best to ignore it. As they got louder, the more of a distraction it became. You really couldn't make out the words but defiantly could tell they were shouting angrily at each other.

Larry looked over at Kate and while she acted like she was oblivious to it, he could see her lips slightly moving as if muttering to herself. "Kate?" he asked carefully.

"What?" she snapped irritated.

"Nothing," he answered and turned his attention back to the math book. _"What did you expect? You reach out to a snake, you're gonna get bit."_

Suddenly, a door flew open upstairs and now they could hear the yelling as Mr. and Mrs. Sanders shouted back and forth as they came down the stairs. "Its no wonder Kate acts like a slut, look at her mother."

"Oh like you're some kind of angel. You're fucking your secretary every other day." They continued arguing as they walked out the front door.

Larry had never heard that kind of viciousness between two parents before. He glanced at Kate and saw her biting her lip and tapping the tip of her pencil. _"She almost looks like she's gonna cry."_ Larry rubbed his wrist as he debated whether or not to ask if she was all right. Going against his better judgment, "Kate?"

Letting her pencil drop onto the table, "I'll be right back," she quickly said, then got up and practically ran to the bathroom. Hearing two cars pullout fast out of the driveway, he shook his head in disgust. Slowly standing up, Larry followed where Kate had ran off to.

Pausing at the bathroom door, he strained to listen for any sounds. He could faintly hear crying. Sighing, he gently tapped on the bathroom door. "Kate."

"Hold on," she shouted through the closed door.

Larry could hear water getting turned on for a moment, then it get shut off and Kate shuffling around in a cabinet for something. A minute later the door slowly opened. He quickly noticed that her mascara was gone and her eyes were slightly red.

"You ok?" Larry asked softly.

"I'm fine," Kate said quickly and walked past him, back to the kitchen.

"Kate," he called as he followed her. "If your ok, than why is your mascara gone?" He said that because he knew Kate would never go anywhere with her makeup messed up, much less gone all together.

She quickly, self-consciously, touched underneath her eyes. "Damn it," she said under her breath. Sighing, she slid into one of the kitchen chairs, defeated.

Larry looked at her; it was a mix between embarrassment and sadness. "Do they always act like that?" he asked as he sat down next to her.

"Not always," she said very softly. "Only when they're together." Kate then laughed sarcastically. "I just wished they get a divorce and get the hell out of each other's lives," she said as she ran a hand through her hair.

"How long have they been fighting like this?"

"About six years." When she said it, Larry's mouth dropped open in surprise. "When my mom had a miscarriage. My mom blamed my dad and my dad blamed my mom."

_"A miscarriage? Wow."_ Larry rubbed his chin as he tried to think of something to say. "Why don't they get a divorce?"

Kate shrugged, "Image. The so-called socialites can't ruin their image," she said with a harsh sarcastic tone. "No matter how much it screws up my life." Kate then let out a small laugh, "Guess now you know that the princess is cracked."

Larry snorted; he didn't mean to, it just happened. "I kinda knew that already," he said with a small grin.

Kate looked at him for a moment confused and then slowly, a small grin tugged at her lips as she snickered. "Yea, I guess from your point of view, I cracked a long time ago." They both start laughing softly for a few minutes. "Why are you being so nice to me? I haven't exactly been nice to you."

He shrugged, "I know what its like to come from a not exactly stable family."

"You do?"

"Not exactly like this but my mom died when I was very young. Even before she died, we never really had a lot of money. When she got sick, my dad struggled to pay her medical bills. After she passed away, my dad decided to move in with my grandmother to help raise me and cut down on a lot of the bills he had to pay."

"Wow," Kate said. "Does anyone else know this?"

"Gordo and Miranda, and I'd be surprised if Lizzie didn't too." Larry then grinned at her, "Didn't you ever wonder why I basically only wore two different styles of shirts?"

She shrugged, "I never gave much thought to why, just that you did. Can I ask you something?"

"How many shirts I actually had?" he asked with a grin and she nodded. "I had five of the weekday and two of the weekend. They got washed twice, once on the weekend and once during the week. I always had on a clean shirt. When I became a freshman, my dad got a better job and we had some more money to spend. Plus, since me and Miranda were dating, she always gave me some kind of clothing for a present. I knew she felt sorry for me and just wanted to help but she'd never actually say that and secretly, I was grateful for it."

Kate looked at him in awe. She had always teased him and thought he was completely beneath her. But now, it was like she was seeing a totally different person. Larry looked at her confused and kind of embarrassed. "What?"

Shaking her head, "Nothing." She then gently tapped the top of the table with her fingernails. "Uh, Larry?"

"Hmm?"

She bit her lip as she tried to force out what she wanted to say, "Do you think, sometime, I could call you and we could talk?"

Larry grinned at her a little, "Sure."

"And I'll try not to be so mean to you, or anyone actually."

He snickered, "Well I wouldn't go that far. We wouldn't want to let everyone knowing you've cracked," he teased.

Kate looked down at the table and smirked as she snickered. "Okay."

"Enough of this touchy feely crap. I am here to make sure you pass math," Larry said and they slowly got back into working on Kate's homework.


	2. Phone Calls

A/N – _"Thoughts"_

Chapter 2 – Phone Calls

Larry was laying on his bed, flipping through some comics when he heard the phone ringing. Ignoring it, figuring it was for his grandmother or father, he continued reading.

A minute later, his grandmother walked into his room. "Its for you Lawrence." she said handing Larry the phone and then leaving.

"Hello?"

"He, Hey Larry," a female voice on the other end said nervously.

Larry's eyes widened in surprise, "Kate?"

"Yea."

"Something wrong?"

"No. Everything's fine. I, uh, just want to, uh, talk."

Larry grinned a little as he remembered Kate asking him if she could call him if she needed someone to talk to. "Anything in particular? Your parents have another fight?"

"Not really, well, nothing out of the ordinary for them. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Kate paused for a moment and then asked, "Do you think I'm shallow?" Nearly chocking on his words, he wasn't exactly sure how to answer. Hearing him, Kate sighed a little, "I want the truth Larry."

Taking a deep breath, "Yea, you are, most of the time. Why? What brought this up?"

"I was in the locker room after cheerleading practice and you should've hear some of the stuff they were talking about."

"That an invitation?" Larry joked and he grinned when he heard Kate chuckling on the other end.

"You wish. Anyway, its like the biggest topic was this girl's entire outfit didn't match or something and they were ragging on her. I'm sitting there, thinking who cares."

"I remember a time when you would."

"Yea. But its like, now, I'm seeing things from a different perspective. Things that seemed to be so important, just aren't anymore. I thought I could be happy being popular and having all these things but that's just what they are, things." Kate sighed and rubbed her forehead. "You wanna know something else? I miss Lizzie and Miranda. Who cares if they're not the coolest girls in the school, they were my friends because they wanted to be my friends and weren't like, what could I do for them."

"Why did you stop being their friend?" Larry asked as he laid down on his bed.

"Remember I told you about the miscarriage. Well right before that happened, the summer after fifth grade, my parents sent me to cheerleading camp. My mom had some stupid grand design on me following in her footsteps and being a cheerleader. So I went and I met Kelly Reigns, at the time she was head cheerleader at the high school and one of the counselors at the camp. I thought her and her friends were so cool. They were everything I thought I wanted to be; cool, funny, gorgeous. She took an interest in me and taught me everything. Then when I came back everything was normal at first, then my mom had her miscarriage. Everything went to hell after that. My parents started fighting and I just didn't know what to do. It was easier for me to hide behind being popular. I thought being popular would take away everything and it did for awhile. But the things I gave up, it was high price to pay for a temporary fix. I gave up my truest friends just because they weren't consider cool. I lost my virginity when I was fifteen. I screwed up my life so badly and now I'm scared that I'll end up even worse than my parents."

Larry laid on his bed, thinking about what she just told him. "Kate."

"Yea?"

"You won't end up worse then your parents," he told her matter of factly.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Cause you realize what your doing and your trying to do something about it. Think about it, would the popular Kate even bother to think about this kinda of stuff, much less talk about it with me."

Kate laughed softly, "I guess your right."

"So anything good happen to you today?"

"You just wanna know how I did on my math test?" she teased.

"That too."

"Well, I got an 75," she told him. "It's a start. It better than the Ds and Fs I've been getting. Speaking of math, instead of you coming here tomorrow, why don't I come over there. It'll get me out of the line of fire and I won't have to listen to them."

"Okay. You know my address right?"

"Yea."

"I gotta go, I'm supposed to meet Claire at the Digital Bean around six," Kate said reluctantly, "I guess I'll talk to ya later."

"You know the number," Larry said sarcastically.

Before she hung up, "Hey Larry."

"Mm."

"Thanks for listening," she said very softly, a little embarrassed.

Chuckling softly on the other end, "No problem Kate. If you need to talk, just call. Bye."

"Bye."

It had been a few weeks since that day at the Sanders and slowly and quietly Kate was opening up more and more to Larry. What had started as one call a week had developed into almost nightly conversations. While Kate asked him to keep their conversations a secret, the results were slowly becoming visible. She was starting to scale back on the verbal attacks on people and the superior attitude was slowly starting to disappear.

Saturday afternoon, Larry and Gordo were sitting in the Digital Bean talking about a video game when Lizzie and Kate walked in. Walking over to them, Lizzie grinned at them. "Hey guys."

"Hey Lizzie," Larry responded.

"What's up?" Gordo asked. He had this sinking feeling that Lizzie was up to something but he just wasn't sure what.

"Well, the spring dance is in danger of being cancelled because the dance fund is low. The student council came up with a way to make some money to pull off the dance," Lizzie told them with a small smile. Lizzie and Kate were the eleventh grade representatives on the council.

"Do we really want to know how?" Gordo asked sarcastically.

Lizzie smirked at him, "We decided to hold an auction. We get the single guys in the school and have the girls bid on them to be their dates to the dance. The money we make goes to fund the dance. We figure if we get about forty, fifty guys and they each pull in say twenty, we'll have enough for the dance and then some."

Larry glanced at Gordo as if to say, you know what's coming next. Gordo rolled his eyes and they both snickered. "Good luck finding your guys."

"We gotta go," Larry said quickly and he and Gordo started to get up to make a fast get away.

"Not so fast," Lizzie said with a grin as she quickly grabbed their wrists. "Since you two are single," she said as her grin widened.

"Knew we should've left as soon as they started," Gordo muttered. "Why would we want to do something where Ethan and the rest of those guys will get these ridiculous high bids and the rest of us will get embarrassed?"

"Come on Gordo. Its for a good cause and you won't be embarrassed, neither of you will. Plus Gordo, I'm sure Parker would pay at least a hundred to go out with you," Lizzie said with a smirk.

"If Gordo does it I will," Larry said. When Gordo glared across the table at him, he just smirked and shrugged, "If I'm going to humiliate myself, I'm taking you down with me."

Lizzie turned to him, "Please Gordo," she said as she gave him the puppy dog look.

"We're not dating anymore, that look isn't going to work on me," he told her with a grin.

"What about me Gordo?" Kate teased as she pouted at him while bating her eyelashes. As he watched her, Larry started feeling a little funny, it was almost as if he was a little jealous of how Kate was acting towards Gordo. He knew she was just kidding around but he couldn't shake the feeling.

Gordo snickered and shook his head, "Fine. I'll do the stupid auction."

Lizzie wrapped an arm around Gordo's shoulders, "Thank you and I promise you'll get more than a decent bid." she told him and Gordo just rolled his eyes. She laughed softly and then got up, "Me and Kate have gotta go talk to some more guys. I'll call you later Gordo. Bye Larry."

"Bye guys," Kate said as she followed Lizzie.

"Bye," the guys said as they remained at their table.

"Oh yea this outta be fun," Gordo mumbled.

Larry smirked at him, "Hey, you never know what could happen."

"That's what I'm afraid of."


	3. Never Know What Could Happen

A/N – _"Thoughts"_

Chapter 3 – Never Know What Could Happen

The following Wednesday afternoon, after school, was the auction, and then Friday would be the dance. By the time Wednesday came around, the Student Council had gotten about forty guys to go through with it.

A few minutes before the auction was to begin, people were milling around and Miranda slipped backstage. As she walked around, she smirked as she saw Gordo leaning up against a wall wearing a pair of tan khakis and a blue dress shirt. "Well at least you put on a clean shirt," she teased, "Ready to be the future Mr. McKenzie."

"Shut up Sanchez," he said with a smirk. For a brief moment, his eyes wondered up and down her. She was wearing a long red and black plaid skirt with a few chains around her waist, a white tank top underneath an unbuttoned black shirt, and black boots.

_"She looks cute,"_ he thought. It wasn't unusual for him to look at his best friends; they were two very pretty girls. But what was different was he was starting to notice the small things too; they way she wore her hair or how her eyes would reflect her emotions.

Miranda laughed softly to herself at her joke, "I hear she's ready to pay a couple hundred to get her hands on you." Gordo glared at her and while she kept the smirk on her face, she started feeling butterflies in her stomach. It was a strange feeling that she had been having lately when she was around her best friend. She didn't know what was causing it but did know that the feeling was happening more often and increasing in magnitude. Trying her best to ignore it, "She's gonna expect a lot for how much money she puts down."

"And who exactly are you bidding on?" Gordo asked her with a sarcastic grin.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she shot back.

"Alright we're ready to start," a voice yelled out, interrupting them.

"I'll make sure to get Parker a front row seat," Miranda said with grin as she started to walk away.

"I will get even," he said to her retreating back with a smirk. She glanced back at him with a small smile and Gordo found his smirk softening into a little grin as he watched her walk out.

As Kate sat with Claire and the other cheerleaders, she had to bite her tongue as she listened to them talk about the various guys who came out. _"How the hell can I stand their constant chatter about nothing?"_

A bunch of the guys had already been auctioned off; Claire had won Ethan for about forty-five dollars and Anna, another cheerleader, had won Danny for about forty dollars.

When the mc announced Larry was the next guy, Kate smirked a little as she saw how nervous he was. He had on a pair of black slacks, a white dress shirt, and a black jacket. As he came out his hands were stuffed in his pants pockets as he slowly walked out on stage.

As the bidding started, a girl in the back bid five dollars. "I can't believe someone actually bid on him," Claire said with a superior smirk.

"I can't believe someone would actually want to go with him?" another cheerleader said from behind them. Kate tried her best to sit there and ignore them but she could feel her temper start to rise.

"What a dork," Claire said with a cruel laugh.

Kate had had enough, "Will you two shut up?" she snarled.

"What?" Claire asked surprised at her outburst.

"You wanna know who would want to go with him?" she asked all of them suddenly. She then stood up, "Twenty dollars." Up on stage, Larry stood shocked and slightly amused that Kate would bid on him.

"Kate what are you doing?" Alix asked horrified that she actually bided on Larry Tudgeman.

"What does it look like?" she said turning to face them. "I'm tired of listening to you guys act like we're all superior to everyone. Well guess what, we're not. Larry's a nice guy but I guess you guys would never know that."

"Sold for twenty dollars to Kate Sanders," the mc's voice said, interrupting her little tirade. Kate grabbed her handbag and left her stunned friends to go pay for her date.

Larry met her at the money table. "So what was your little tirade about?" he asked her.

Kate shrugged, "I'm finally seeing how sheltered my so-called friends really are. Something's changing, I don't if its them or if its me but we're growing apart. They're so image conscious and I really don't care."

Larry smirked, "Since when?" he asked sarcastically.

"Ok, maybe a little. But they were bad mouthing you and I just got sick of listening to them."

"So you bid on me to prove a point?" he asked, this time seriously.

Kate looked at him, "Kinda. I think that was what motivated me to make the bid but after I did it, I was ready to go higher." They started walking towards the back of the auditorium. "As I was standing there ranting like a lunatic, I started thinking that I wanted to go with you. Ever since that day, it's like my little bubble world as shattered and I'm seeing things for real for the first time. And they don't seem that scary when I'm with you."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were falling for me?" he joked.

Kate smirked at him as they sat down in two empty seats, "Don't push it." They both snickered and got ready to watch the rest of auction.

A little while after Kate won the bidding on Larry, Miranda and Lizzie were sitting closer towards the stage, waiting to make fun of Gordo. A little earlier, Lizzie had gotten a date with Mark Bolin, her latest crush, for twenty-five dollars.

Lizzie smirked, as she looked a few aisles behind them. "Parker is practically drooling," Lizzie whispered sarcastically to Miranda.

Miranda snickered but stayed quiet. Lizzie looked over at her and gave her a questioning glance. "What?" Miranda asked her.

Lizzie shrugged, "Nothin."

"The next bachelor is David Gordon," the mc announced.

Lizzie snickered as she saw Gordo walk out, she could tell he was embarrassed, he hated the spotlight. His arms were at his sides and he was looking around not really focusing on anything, and she could see him bounce slightly on his feet.

She expected to hear some kind of joke from Miranda but when nothing came, she glanced over at her. Miranda was just sitting there watching Gordo, like she was in deep thought about something.

"Are you alright?" Lizzie asked her.

Miranda shook her head a little, "What?"

"You're spacing out. Usually you'd crack jokes about Gordo parading around or something about Parker stalking him."

"I just got a lot on my mind," Miranda told her as she looked back up at the stage. Hearing Parker bid, she looked back at her and for some reason felt an urge to punch her. As she heard Parker outbid anyone who would challenge her, Miranda's temper started to boil.

"Thirty," Parker said as she outbid another challenger.

Miranda saw the nervous look on Gordo's face, and then glancing back at Parker and seeing her smug grin, something clicked. Acting on impulse, Miranda stood up, "Forty!"

Lizzie jolted in her seat and sat up, "What are you doing?"

"I have no idea," she said as she tried to keep the look of horror off of her face.

Lizzie looked up at stage and seeing Gordo's surprised expression, she grinned a little. _"I knew they were bickering way too much lately. I should have seen this coming."_

"Forty five," Parker said and glared at Miranda.

Lizzie laughed as she saw Miranda's eyes narrow at the other girl and her nostrils flare. Miranda's competitive streak was well known, she hated to lose at anything. Combine that with her pride and there was no way Miranda was going to back down now. _"This outta be good."_

"Sixty," Miranda said directly at Parker.

"Seventy!" Parker answered with a scowl.

Lizzie caught Gordo's eyes and he gave her a questioning look, as if to ask what was going on. All Lizzie could do was shrug. She didn't know what caused her to bid; all she knew was Miranda wasn't going to stop till she was out of money.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out all of her money and doing a quick count, "Ninety five."

Parker scowled and sat down hard in her seat, defeated. She glared at Miranda and Miranda glared back.

"Sold to the brunette," the mc's voice boomed and Miranda's head whipped towards the stage in surprise.

Suddenly what she just did, came into perspective and noticed everyone was looking at her. Giving a weak smile, before going to pay, "What the hell did I just do?" she whispered to Lizzie.

Lizzie just smirked at her and shrugged. "You just paid ninety five dollars to go on a date with Gordo." she told her as she tried not to laugh in her face. Groaning, Miranda walked over to the table to pay.

Gordo met her at the table. After she paid, they looked at each other, neither sure what to say. "I don't know whether to thank you or ask what were you thinking?"

"You sweet talk all your dates like this?" she said, using their sarcastic banter to hide behind.

"Only the ones who pay almost a hundred bucks to go out with me." he responded, doing the same.

Walking back to where Lizzie was sitting, both were quiet, busy with their own thoughts. As they sat down, Lizzie grinned at them, "So how's the happy couple?" she teased. Miranda and Gordo glared at her and it caused Lizzie to snicker. Glancing back at Kate and Larry for a moment and then back at her best friends, _"Oh yea, this dance is gonna be interesting."_


	4. Get What You Pay For

I'm glad people liked this, I wanted to try a new pairing and this idea as been bouncing around in my head for awhile. For now, this is the final chapter. Real life is rearing its ugly head (lol), so my time for writing as been cut back. Plus, my muses are constantly wondering and I'm having a hard time staying focused on one story for very long. Hope you like the ending.

tormented soul – As usual, thanks for the help.

A/N – _"Thoughts"_

Chapter 4 – Get What You Pay For

Thursday afternoon, afterschool, Gordo was sitting in the school's media bay starring off into space. Passing by the room, Larry glanced inside and grinned a little as he saw his friend.

"Day dreaming about Miranda?" Larry asked sarcastically as he walked into the room. He, along with the rest of the crowd, had enjoyed Miranda's little outburst the other day.

Gordo jumped a little in his chair, "No!." he said very quickly and Larry just snickered.

"Sure," Larry said as he sat in the seat next to him, not believing him for a minute. "You can't tell me you didn't enjoy Miranda and Parker bidding over you."

A shadow of smile crept on Gordo's face and when Larry started laughing softly, it turned into a scowl. "What about you big man? Remember how well your seventh grade marriage project turned out?"

Larry laughed a little harder, "Hey, she was thirsty," he said and they both started laughing.

"Gonna go postal again?" Gordo asked with a grin and Larry shook his head no.

"Kate's changing. Into what, I don't know," he told him, "She's just not that big of a bitch as she was before. Besides, look at her. Would any guy in their right mind turn down a chance to go out with her? Those legs, damn." Than an evil smile crossed over his face, "And at least it doesn't take me fourteen years to realize I like someone." Than the smile got wider, "How long have you known Miranda?"

"Since I was three. Why?" Than it clicked in Gordo's head, "Don't even go there Tudge." Larry started laughing again and Gordo glared at him, "I don't like Miranda like that. Besides, she bid on me, remember?"

Larry just looked at him with a knowing smile, "True but that doesn't mean you don't like her. What you two think is bickering, to everyone else, its flirting. And think about it, if she didn't feel something for you, would she have snapped like that. Miranda's impulsive, but not like that."

Gordo just glared at him, "I hate you."

Larry just chuckled, "I know. Just think about it," he said before leaving.

Dropping his head onto the desktop, Gordo tried to ignore the headache forming in the back of his head, _"Why did I even agree to this stupid idea?"_

The night of the dance, Miranda and Gordo were sitting on the gym bleachers just watching everyone else have a good time. "This is lame," Miranda mumbled as she tapped her platforms on the gym floor.

"Finally she speaks," Gordo said sarcastically.

"Bite me Gordo."

"You know if you didn't want to come with me, why did you bid on me?" he asked annoyed. Instantly his conversation with Larry yesterday, replayed in his head, _"And think about it, if she didn't feel something for you, would she have snapped like that. Miranda's impulsive but not like that."_

Miranda opened her mouth to say something sarcastic but nothing came out. "I don't know," she finally answered.

Gordo looked at her confused at her change in tone. "Don't know what?"

"Why I bided on you. I guess, I was…jealous."

"Jealous?" he asked surprised.

Miranda shrugged, "When I saw Parker outbidding everyone and with that smug smile on her face, I got jealous."

"So you were jealous of Parker?" he asked, not really understanding what was going on.

"Kinda. I know I tease you about her a lot but when she got close to winning, something inside me clicked. Before I knew what was happening, I was standing up and in a bidding war. All I knew was that I didn't want you going out with her."

Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. He had no idea what Miranda was trying to say. "So you only bided cause you didn't want me to go with Parker?"

"Yes…No…I," Miranda sighed and started getting agitated. "I can't explain it," she said and started to get up but Gordo quickly put his hand on her forearm.

"Try to," he told her.

She whimpered softly as she looked into his blue eyes and felt goosebumps rise where on her forearm where he was touching her. She hated when he guilt tripped her and he didn't even do it intentionally. Sitting back down next to him, she looked down at the floor. "Something's changed between us and it makes me nervous when I'm around you. I don't like being nervous."

"I make you nervous?" he asked in disbelief and with a surprised grin on his face.

Miranda smirked at him. "A little." She turned slightly so she was facing him. "I don't know what's changed and I'm not sure I wanna know. We've been spending a lot of time together lately, just the two of us, and I've really like that. Parker could've been any girl and I would've gotten jealous. I," she paused as she raked a hand through her hair. Taking a deep breath, "I'm tired of dating jackasses who get scared because I actually have a mind."

Gordo smirked, "You are very opinionated," he joked. She glared at him but the smirk still played on her lips. "But that's what I like. I want a girl who isn't afraid to tell me what they're thinking," he continued. He paused for a moment, as if debating in him whether or not to ask what he really wanted to know. Finally, "Have you ever thought what it'd be like if we dated?"

"Sometimes," she said at first, but then quickly added, "Actually a lot lately," she told him. "You?"

He smiled guiltily, "Yea," then he looked at her for a moment. "What's stopping us?"

She shrugged, "Fear maybe? Its easier to think about it than actually doing it."

After a few moments of silence, "What would you do if I kissed you?" Gordo asked suddenly.

Miranda tried to hide getting thrown by the question; something forward like that was the last thing she'd expect from him. "I may slug you or I may kiss you back," she told him with a small grin. "Its fifty-fifty."

"I think I can beat those odd," he said softly and then slowly leaned in. After a quick, soft kiss, they grinned at each other.

"Looks like you beat the house," Miranda said very softly.

Gordo smiled, "You wanna dance?" She nodded and after they both stood up, Gordo took her hand and they walked out to the dance floor.

Across the gym, Kate was standing near the wall, sipping some punch when Larry walked over to her.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Larry asked her as he stood in front of her.

Kate grinned at him, "I think I'm gonna drop cheerleading."

Larry looked at her in surprise. "Why?" he asked curiously.

She shrugged, "I'm tired of the politics and the bullshit. Why can't I be friends with whoever I want and not have to worry about their social standing? Or wear what I want to wear. I just don't think they're my friends anymore or ever were."

"You gonna do something else?" he asked her.

She nodded. "I talked to Gordo this morning, he's helping direct the school play. I asked him if it was too late to do something. The play's already been cast but he said I could do some backstage stuff and I'm gonna be the costume designer," she said smiling.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

Larry then noticed Kate looking at something behind him. "What?" he asked as he turned slightly to see what she was looking at.

"I want that," Kate said softly.

Following her line of sight, Larry saw Miranda and Gordo dancing to a slow song a little closer than normal. "Gordo and Miranda?" he asked a little confused.

When Gordo whispered something into Miranda's ear and she playfully punched him, Kate grinned. "Not them but what they have," she told him. "They like each other and there's no hidden agenda. They can just act on it and not worry about what others think. Granted that's Gordo's motto but you get what I mean."

"Yea, I do," Larry said. "You'll get Kate, trust me, you'll get it," he said, then leaned in and kissed her cheek.

Kate stood there stunned and a little flustered. Looking down at the ground for a moment, she could feel her face heat up. Shyly looking at him, she smiled a little, _"Maybe I will get it."_ As she looked at him, she felt her smile widen, "Thanks Larry."

He cocked his head a little, "For what?"

"Being you," she told him, "And not holding a grudge against me for the way I've treated you and being there when I needed help. I'm glad I decided to make a fool of myself and bid on you."

Larry grinned at her, "Your welcome," he said laughing a little. "Um, Lizzie invited me to her birthday party next week and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. I'm sure Lizzie wouldn't mind, I mean you're not exactly mortal enemies anymore."

Kate watched as Larry got a little nervous as he asked her out. "Sounds like fun." She giggled at the expression on Larry's face; it was a mix of surprise and extreme happiness. "You wanna dance?"

Looking over towards where the so-called popular girls were huddled and whispering, no doubt about them, "Won't people talk?" he asked, meaning her old friends would start spreading rumors and probably make fun of her.

She just shrugged. "Let them talk," Kate said and then took Larry's hand and led him out onto the dance floor.


End file.
